Hello!

7 Comments

Relentless bullying pushed 12 year old Tayla to breaking point and she felt her only way of escape was to try and take her own life.

Right now every 15 minutes a child is being bullied.

Every day more than 100,000 students in Australia stay at home because they feel unsafe at school.

Tayla’s story is just one of many. Her devastated mother sought repeated help from her daughter’s school, but the bullying continued with the family eventually forced to move away from their central Queensland home.

Her story forms part of a special investigation into bullying tonight on The Feed which examines how widespread it really is and how authorities are often powerless to prevent it.

Reporter Patrick Abboud gained exclusive access to families affected by this tragedy spending months working with them to share their stories.

Abboud said he was drawn to Tayla’s story but sadly found hers was far from unique with one in three suicides in Australia directly related to bullying.

Having experienced bullying himself first-hand as a teenager, Abboud said he found several other cases where kids had been severely bullied.

Tayla told Abboud how she was bullied from the day she started at her new school in central Queensland, with her single mother moving to the country to give her daughter a safe upbringing.

“I wanted to die,” the now 13-year-old told The Feed.

While the family has since moved and made a fresh start in Cairns, Tayla is scarred by the bullying experience but is now receiving the help she needs.

“Tayla’s in a good place now,” he said.

“Her story is just heartbreaking, she’s such a brave kid.”

Her mother Kali told Abboud the reality was Tayla would have died if they stayed.

Showing him pictures of her tortured drawings, she said: “No mum wants to see their kids drawing these things.”

The Feed’s special episode on bullying airs tonight, August 30 at 7.30pm on SBS 2.

If you need help or to speak to a professional, you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit their Crisis Support Chat.

SIGN the petition here to make bullying a crime.

Share your comments below.

Image via SBS

We may get commissions for purchases made using links in this post. Learn more.
  • My heart goes out to this girl. Bullying is such a huge problem indeed ! The kids get taught a lot about it at school and we talk a lot about it at home as well. Think more campaigning, training, education, talking, counseling and confronting/addressing needs to be done.

    Reply

  • Too many parents dont take it seriously when told their child is bullying.

    Reply

  • The measures in place at schools do not stop bullying. I don’t know what the answer is though.


    • It is an issue that has to be tackled at home too. It has to be tackled on all fronts and children need to see that adults do not bully as the adults are the role models. Sadly some adults do bully and they need to be stopped.

    Reply

  • I’ve signed the petition. It’s horrendous that this girl had these horrible thoughts. Something more should be done against bullying, absolutely!

    Reply

  • Bullying is so awful and impacts for so many years. It has to be a priority to tackle in schools and workplaces.

    Reply

  • School is so hard these days. It seems the more attention bullying is given, the more it grows. So sad that this mum had to pack up and move to save her daughter. The bullies should have been expelled from the school and made to attend counselling before being allowed in another school

    Reply

Post a comment
Add a photo
Your MoM account


Lost your password?

Enter your email and a password below to post your comment and join MoM:

You May Like

Loading…

Looks like this may be blocked by your browser or content filtering.

↥ Back to top

Thanks For Your Star Rating!

Would you like to add a written rating or just a star rating?

Write A Rating Just A Star Rating
Join